Update: NSA surveillance critic Bruce Schneier to leave post at BT

While BT wasn't happy with comments, he says it's "past time for something new."

Bruce Schneier, at an Open Technology Institute presentation on Capitol Hill last Friday, said the NSA had created vulnerabilities in the Internet that criminals could exploit within the next two to three years.

Bruce Schneier, the noted security technologist and fellow at the Harvard Berkman Center for the Internet, is leaving his job as "security futurologist" at BT Group plc (the company formerly known as British Telecom). A spokesperson for the company confirmed to Ars that Schneier would leave BT at the end of December.

Recently, Schneier has strongly focused on analyzing the documents from the National Security Agency and GCHQ surveillance programs released by former NSA Contractor Edward Snowden. At a recent event in Washington, DC where he appeared in his capacity as a fellow at the New America Foundation's Open Technology Institute, Schneier said that the exploits used by the NSA had broken the most fundamental security mechanisms of the Internet by creating backdoors to systems that could potentially be exploited by others.

Ironically, BT has been fingered by The Guardian, the newspaper that turned to Schneier for help in analyzing the Snowden documents, as a key partner in the surveillance programs of GCHQ. BT provided what the Guardian called "secret unlimited access to their network of undersea cables." BT, known as "Remedy" in GCHQ documents, would not comment on data provided to GCHQ or NSA at the time, noting only that it was obligated to comply with British and European Union law.

An anonymous source provided The Register with a copy of the internal e-mail announcing Schneier's departure, and the paper reports that the split with BT came because of Schneier's public comments about the NSA and GCHQ surveillance programs. BT denied that to the paper, "saying that the working relationship had come to its 'natural end.'"

Update: Bruce Schneier returned an e-mail to Ars, saying that his departure had nothing to do with the NSA—he simply wants to move on. "No, they weren't happy with me, but they knew that I am an independent thinker and they didn't try to muzzle me in any way. It's just time. I spent seven years at BT and seven years at Counterpane Internet Security, Inc before BT bought us. It's past time for something new."

The idea is to apply immense social pressure on people to ignore their morals and go along with the crowd. Drive them out of work, separate them from families and friends, and brand them "conspiracy theorists".

The NSA nearly hit a breaking point with their actions here--one that could have had real repercussions for the establishment--but I suspect we American cattle will remain inside our fence of string.

Oh, really? When exactly did you send this to the printers? You need to come up with a better term for this.

Do you also get worked up when someone "dials" a phone number on their touchscreen phone? When someone mentions the solid-state "drive" in their computer? When your "paycheck" is electronically deposited into your account?

Sounds like BT took an advantage of an easy "out". Contracts for contractors especially IT types often end on calender years. Mine always have. Usually renewal of the contract can be semi-automatic. Contractor can also opt-out if desired. Schneier might not have wanted to work any longer for a NSA "source". It wouldn't be my "favorite" place to work. I wouldn't want to work at a company complicit in spying on innocent people.

Ars tried to contact Bruce Schneier for comment, but he was unavailable at press time.

This sort of thing is all over the place these days, but it's a bit disingenuous to say in today's microsecond from-keyboard-to-web-page world. I'm beginning to tire of the standard disclaimer for "oh well we gave it our best shot but he didn't call us back in 5 minutes." How long was "by press time"?

We know everyone has deadlines and wants to get the story out, but I would've personally prefer a deeper story along *with* a Schneier quote whenever it was that he became available.

Ars tried to contact Bruce Schneier for comment, but he was unavailable at press time.

This sort of thing is all over the place these days, but it's a bit disingenuous to say in today's microsecond from-keyboard-to-web-page world. I'm beginning to tire of the standard disclaimer for "oh well we gave it our best shot but he didn't call us back in 5 minutes." How long was "by press time"?

We know everyone has deadlines and wants to get the story out, but I would've personally prefer a deeper story along *with* a Schneier quote whenever it was that he became available.

Or alternately, "We have reached out to Schneier for a comment and will update this story if and when he responds."

I wish Bruce happy trails, and I hope that he continues to provide us with the knowledgeable insight that he has shared with us so far.

If he mysteriously goes silent or has an "accident," I think we all know where that is going to point. I hope that it's just my tinfoil hat being screwed on too tightly, but at this point, I wouldn't be terribly surprised.

Given how outspoken Bruce has been recently, and how frequently he's been updating his blog and giving speeches, I'd assumed that he'd already quietly switched careers to full-time blogger. Makes me suspect this has been in the works for him for a while.

I'm sure Ars could have found a better picture of him to put on the article.

Ars tried to contact Bruce Schneier for comment, but he was unavailable at press time.

This sort of thing is all over the place these days, but it's a bit disingenuous to say in today's microsecond from-keyboard-to-web-page world. I'm beginning to tire of the standard disclaimer for "oh well we gave it our best shot but he didn't call us back in 5 minutes." How long was "by press time"?

We know everyone has deadlines and wants to get the story out, but I would've personally prefer a deeper story along *with* a Schneier quote whenever it was that he became available.

Or alternately, "We have reached out to Schneier for a comment and will update this story if and when he responds."

Yeah, because "unavailable at press time" completely rules that out.

Schneier is awesome. I don't care about BT as the stuff that he does that I do care about isn't related to any corporate positions he holds. He's a vital voice and I don't see that changing, regardless of where he hangs his hat during business hours.

This is at least the second time you've run that same dorky dr-seussian picture of the guy. Surely your art department can scrounge up something a little more flattering? It really is unprofessional to run that photo. I'm not saying you need to go all Vladimir Putin and put up a picture of him wrestling a crocodile shirtless on horseback. But the photo you've got now is the kind of thing you run to make a satirical point, not for general reporting.

Just for starters, here are some less dopey pictures with creative commons licenses:

This is at least the second time you've run that same dorky dr-seussian picture of the guy. Surely your art department can scrounge up something a little more flattering? It really is unprofessional to run that photo. I'm not saying you need to go all Vladimir Putin and put up a picture of him wrestling a crocodile shirtless on horseback. But the photo you've got now is the kind of thing you run to make a satirical point, not for general reporting.

Just for starters, here are some less dopey pictures with creative commons licenses:

Andrew, the dragoncon pages you linked to are marked as CC non-commercial licenses. Ars wouldn't be able to use the photos there unless you licensed them separately (and were able to prove that you owned the copyright).

Andrew, the dragoncon pages you linked to are marked as CC non-commercial licenses. Ars wouldn't be able to use the photos there unless you licensed them separately (and were able to prove that you owned the copyright).

How about looking at the top, where it says by ktetch (as do half the photos, which is me) or the page sidebar with the other photographers name, in the site copyright (aka my boss)?

Andrew, the dragoncon pages you linked to are marked as CC non-commercial licenses. Ars wouldn't be able to use the photos there unless you licensed them separately (and were able to prove that you owned the copyright).

How about looking at the top, where it says by ktetch (as do half the photos, which is me) or the page sidebar with the other photographers name, in the site copyright (aka my boss)?

This isn't my first rodeo...

I don't speak for Ars's lawyers, but if I were in their place I would need more than a forum post from an account with a similar name when the page the photos are on explicitly lists a license that is incompatible with my intended usage.

Edit: I see the dragoncon page uses a more restrictive CC license than the flickr page for your photos while the scott m jones photos are listed as completely restricted on their flickr pages. I think that simply stating that the license on your flickr pages did not restrict commercial use would have been more helpful than a tangent about usernames.

I have tremendous respect for Bruce and I have no doubt that he will go on to find a great gig somewhere else. I have even more respect for him now that he's given up what is possibly the greatest job title of all time: "security futurologist".

And if you guys are going to bicker over what NonCommercial means, a good first step might be looking at the actual language of the license (as opposed to the totally-not-legally-binding comments on the wiki). From the Legal Code of the 4.0 NonCommercial licenses (I believe similar language has been in place in CC licenses since the mid-2000s):

Jimmy, a number of the Ars staff know me (you'll find me quoted and sourced in articles here back to at least 07), they know who I am (after a forum comment here over the summer, Nate used an email address he had for one of my co-workers at TorrentFreak to get in touch over Jeremy Hammond, a person with whom I've had some dealings), mainly through my Pirate Party work.

Second, the pics there are kinda low-res. I did that intentionally, because I didn't need higher res for what I was doing, and my upload is slow. I have High res versions. available for Aurich to weave his magic.i did use the high res ones for this video, but I still need to work on the closed captions http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cmWjcy1tO80

Third, I've invited the Ars crew to come experience Dragoncon a few times. Atlanta's biggest parade, A track just on science, another just on Space, and a skeptics track, and a podcasting track, AND 3 different gaming tracks (video, MMO and card/board games) AND LARP as well as the Electronic Frontier Forums track (where I'm currently assistant director)... and that's just the stuff based in the Hilton,

There's more in the Hyatt, Marriott, Westin, and Sheraton too. There's a reason badge pickup on Thursday always has a line that makes an iPhone release line look like the checkout line at Walmart at 3am on a thursday morning - wrapping around 3 sides of a city block isn't uncommon.

...I'm sure Ars could have found a better picture of him to put on the article.

It almost seems like photographers make an effort to snap their pictures when the speaker will look the most foolish. I wonder if they offer to sell their photos in the "flattering" and "makes them look like a buffoon" categories.

The idea is to apply immense social pressure on people to ignore their morals and go along with the crowd. Drive them out of work, separate them from families and friends, and brand them "conspiracy theorists".

The NSA nearly hit a breaking point with their actions here--one that could have had real repercussions for the establishment--but I suspect we American cattle will remain inside our fence of string.

Failing all that private contractor support services like Blackwater exist.

I have tremendous respect for Bruce and I have no doubt that he will go on to find a great gig somewhere else. I have even more respect for him now that he's given up what is possibly the greatest job title of all time: "security futurologist".

And if you guys are going to bicker over what NonCommercial means, a good first step might be looking at the actual language of the license (as opposed to the totally-not-legally-binding comments on the wiki). From the Legal Code of the 4.0 NonCommercial licenses (I believe similar language has been in place in CC licenses since the mid-2000s):

Ars is wonderful, but as far I know it's not run as a philanthropic exercise. They expect and intend to make a profit.

I don't see how adding a pic thus licensed of someone as part of an Ars article runs afoul of "primarily intended for or directed towards commercial advantage or monetary compensation" but I'll consider myself chastised appropriately.

Sean Gallagher / Sean is Ars Technica's IT Editor. A former Navy officer, systems administrator, and network systems integrator with 20 years of IT journalism experience, he lives and works in Baltimore, Maryland.